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Following a relatively quiet Fourth of July with only five DUI arrests and a few small gang fights, Santa Barbara police had a busy weekend.

The disturbances began Thursday, near the MTD transit center on Chapala Street, when two women motorists witnessed a 43-year-old transient striking a 77-year-old man in a motorized wheelchair. According to police, Joseph Abraham Aguilar approached the man from behind, yelling obscenities. He then began hitting the man several times in the head and upper body. The victim used a support-flag on his chair to fend off Aguilar, who was found on State Street and arrested for battery, elder abuse and violation of probation.

James Aloysius Nolan, 60, a local homeless man, was arrested for allegedly attacking people along State Street on Thursday. Police received a call from a man avoiding Nolan, who allegedly became aggressive for no apparent reason at about 5:30 p.m. According to Lt. Paul McCaffrey, Nolan pushed a teenage girl off her bicycle and then began chasing other pedestrians, hitting several of them with newspapers he had rolled in his hands.

SB Police

From left to right: Joseph Aguilar, Victor Visueta, and John McAulay.

The following day, Friday, police responded to West Haley Street, where they had received reports of a man creating a disturbance. According to McCaffrey, John Alexander McAulay, a 39-year-old transient, was banging on the windows of the Brewhouse when the owner asked him to leave. He did, walking across the street, drinking from a can of beer. He eventually threw the half-full can at a passing car, just missing the vehicle. He then pushed over a parked motorcycle, causing several hundred dollars of damage, before turning his wrath on a parked BMW, trying to break its windows, first with his fists and then with an iron railroad spike from his backpack. After he couldn’t break the windows with the spike, he turned and threw it at another passing vehicle, narrowly missing it. McAulay then took the lid of a metal trashcan and broke two windows of yet another parked car. He was eventually arrested without a fight for felony vandalism and throwing objects with the likelihood of causing injury, according to McCaffrey.

Saturday at 5:15 p.m., police responding to a disturbance call at an apartment in the 500 block of W. Canon Perdido St. saw a man matching the suspect description driving away. They stopped the car and arrested Victor Eddie Visueta, 37, for driving under the influence of heroin.

Later that evening, police received a call from a Tustin man who was visiting town and watching a movie with friends at Metro 4 Theater, 618 State St. The man went to the lobby to use the restroom and allegedly saw Santa Barbara resident Catarino Valenzuela, 38, smoking while entering the bathroom. The man reported the incident to employees at the theater. When Valenzuela came out, he found out he had been reported on and threatened the victim, using obscenities, and went into the same theater the victim had just left. The victim called police, who arrived as the movie was ending. Valenzuela was arrested for disturbing the peace and for possessing methamphetamine and a crack pipe.

How come you only report on the homeless and poor people who get arrested? How about the more affluent business leaders who get busted for drug & alcohol charges or for beating their kids. You're a rich butt-kissing publication...not better than the NP.

I don't like the use of police mugs when someone has just been arrested -- people look their worst in mug shots. It's almost as if they're guilty even before charges are filed ... if charges are filed.

The only time I think it's appropriate to use police mug shots is if the authorities need the public's help in solving the case -- or if there are victims who might come forward if they see the alleged perpetrator.